Get RTT clock decisions right first time, in every team.
RTT Buddy answers your staff’s clock start, stop and pause questions from your own access policy, with the source shown on every answer. Cleaner validation, less waiting on your RTT experts, and a clear view of where training is needed.
- Your policy first. National RTT rules only as a labelled fallback.
- Cited and confidence-rated. Unclear cases go to your RTT lead.
- No patient data. Identifiers are blocked before a question is sent.
Question: Patient cancelled their first outpatient appointment and asked for a new date. Does the clock stop or reset?
The clock keeps running.
Clear-cutA patient cancelling an appointment does not stop or reset the clock under the national rules.
What to do
- Offer the earliest new date the patient can attend.
- Record the cancellation as patient-initiated and keep the original clock start.
- If they cancel again, check section 6.4 with the clinician before any discharge.
Learning point
Only a clock stop event ends the clock. Cancellations, rebookings and administrative changes never reset it.
Patient cancellation
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What staff on our trial at an NHS acute trust have told us so far
More accurate validation
Clock decisions settled against the policy, not memory.
Complex queries answered precisely
Including the awkward pathways that used to go to the inbox.
Less time waiting on experts
Answers while the record is still open.
The same rules in every department
One reading of the access policy across teams.
Better clock decisions show up across your whole elective position
A waiting list you can stand behind
Clock starts, stops and pauses are recorded right the first time, so validation finds fewer errors and your reported position reflects reality.
- Fewer recording errors to unpick in validation
- The same ruling across specialties and sites
- Every ruling cited, so decisions can be evidenced in audit
In practice
A validator working through the PTL settles a disputed clock stop against your policy in seconds, instead of parking it for the RTT lead.
See your real elective position
Accurate clocks mean the right patients are counted and long waiters are visible earlier, so capacity goes to the patients who need it.
- Patients on the right pathway, with the right clock
- Long wait risk spotted sooner
- More confidence in trajectories and recovery plans
In practice
A patient who moves to active monitoring has their clock stopped correctly, so they no longer sit in your long wait numbers.
Your RTT experts stop being the bottleneck
Routine questions are answered in seconds, so your most experienced people spend their time on complex pathways, not the inbox.
- Answers while the record is still open
- New starters working confidently sooner
- Less reliance on the one or two people who know the rules
In practice
A new booking coordinator checks a clock rule on their third day without waiting for a reply from the access team.
Know where training will make a difference
Trust admins see which RTT topics staff ask about most, which questions needed escalating, and where your policy is silent. Never who asked.
- Topic trends over time
- Escalations and policy gaps in one view
- Evidence for your training plan and next policy review
In practice
Your access lead sees a rise in questions about DNAs, and that the policy does not define reasonable notice. The policy gets a clearer clause and staff get a short refresher.
Live within days. A more accurate PTL from day one.
RTT Buddy is ready to go today. No IT project, no PAS integration and no training programme. Your teams are using RTT Buddy within days of agreement, and every clock decision they make from then on is checked against your policy. That shows up in your PTL and your validation results straight away.
Talk to us about a trialWithin days
Your teams are up and running
Your trust admin uploads the access policy and invites staff. Nothing to install and nothing to integrate.
From day one
RTT queries answered immediately
Staff get a ruling grounded in your policy while the record is still open, not days later from the RTT inbox.
From the first week
A more accurate PTL
Clock starts, stops and pauses are recorded right first time, so fewer errors reach the PTL. Genuinely unclear cases go to your RTT lead with the source attached.
Every validation cycle
Bigger gains from validation
Validators settle disputed clocks on the spot, so each pass clears more errors and the improvement shows in your reported performance.
See it working on your own policy
Tell us about your trust. We’ll set up a 30-minute walkthrough using your access policy and send the assurance pack for your IG team.
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